Beer Challenge

It rained the whole day in Munich, but I still went on the free tour. I do like Munich, but berlin is still better. People told me that Munich is the cultural capital of Germany, of Bavaria. 80% of Munich was destroyed during the war, and when they rebuilt it they wanted to preserve the traditional, old looking buildings. Unlike Berlin, which is very modern, Munich remains more midieval. On the tour we visited this church when has a few very interesting stories. The "twin towers" of the church were one of the few things that were not destroyed during the war precisely because the pilots of the allied forces were instructed not to bomb it. The reason was because they used these towers to determine when they were flying over Munich...so they could bomb the area around it. Supposedly this church was also built very quickly because the devil helped build it. The architect and the devil made a deal that the church would have no windows, and then the devil would help him build it since he wanted the place of worship to be miserable and dark. However, after it is complete the building had glorious windows! And the devil gets angry, but then the architect points out that at the precise location where they made the deal none of the windows can be seen and it is indeed dark. The devil gets so mad that he stomps his foot, leaving a foot print. There is a foot print in the church, but another story is that the architect left his own footprint there as a signature.

The guide took us around Munich and showed us many historically important areas, like the location where the Beer Hall Putsch took place (where Hitler tried to overthrow the government and got put in jail, during which he wrote his famous Mein Kampf). Also, we saw a lot of little monuments. Unlike Berlin, which construct huge monuments to the holocaust to ensure that no one forgets, Munich prefers to keep that dark part of history subtle so that they can move forward. There is also a nice Jewish community in Munich. These little memorials are often unmarked, and you would not notice them unless you sought them out or someone showed them to you. There is one that I really liked that is dedicated to the German citizens who stood up against the Nazis. I do feel that they are often not emphasized in history--the numerous Germans that actually risked their own lives to resist the Nazis, something that is also very brave and should be remembered.

We saw various landmarks like the old and new town hall, Marienplatz, the Opera House and the Glockenspiel. This clock, like the clock in Prague, has a little performance during certain times of the day. The one in Prague was very over rated, it was just a skeleton that rings the bell and a saint comes out. I heard this one is better than Prague, but I did not get to see it. We also saw the Haufbrauhaus, the brewery for the Royal Family (and the place where Hitler made one of his first speeches). Apparently back in the day people would just pee on the floor because they would drink so much and did not want to lose their seat by getting up to go to the bathroom...ewwwww. Now of course there are bathrooms, there is a also a vomitorium where you can throw up if you are sick...

After the tour we went to this place that our guide suggested, but it was quite bad. It was all you can eat stew, and if you break the record of numbre of bowls eaten you get a prize. I looove eating competitions...but the stew was soooo salty and not good, I figured it would do too much harm to my body. So I only had one bowl.

After this there was a Beer Challenge that I failed quite miserably at. I cannot drink that much, but I figured beer is such a big part of the culture in Munich that I MUST participate. In the places we went to the smallest size beer you could get was 1 liter. So of course...I got...really really really drunk. People were very helpful though. Even though I was upset and emotional (I suppose it was one of those days) other Americans were very nice and made sure that I got back to my hostel safely. I was quite embarassed, but oh well I suppose it happens. Anyhow, I woke up at 5:30 am and did not want to go back to sleep because I had a train at 7:30.

I was hanging around in the lobby and then these three German people invited me to go eat at Burger King with them :D :D :D I think they thought I was crazy too, hahahaha. And then they tried to get rid of me!! Actually they did not. Not that they would have been able to anyway. They were very funny.